14 Aug - Two kinds of pilot....

Date: Sunday 14 August 2005Position @ 1200 Local (GMT+1): 61°34' North, 001°21' West - Next destination: Peterhead, ScotlandETA: Saturday 20 August, 2005Distance to go: unknown at this timeDistance sailed from Immingham and Crew change : Not Available due to various
courses and manoeuvering.Total distance sailed: Not known.

We went into Sullom Voe on the West of Shetlands Pipeline and have departed to
follow the East of Shetland Pipeline to the Magnus Field.

This Week, the Ernest Shackleton took a brief
break from the survey of the 22’’ Clair Oil Pipeline and the West Of Shetland
Pipeline to go into Sullom Voe and effect a crew change. It wasn’t exactly ‘out of our
way’. The pipeline terminates at
the Sullom Voe Shore Terminal and I believe we were some 5 miles away from the
shore when we retrieved the ROV (Remote Operated Vehicle) to go alongside and
let some people go home! At 0730am
on Thursday morning (11th), we saw the pilot boat approach and
boarded the Pilot on the port side.

As you can see, the transfer is achieved when the pilot boat comes alongside and, matching us for course and
speed, the Pilot has climbed up the ‘pilot ladder’.

Although the Pilot is aboard to advise and guide us safely alongside, the
ultimate responsibility for the safe navigation of the vessel still rests with
the Master of the Vessel. It is written in the log book as ‘Courses Various to
Master’s Orders and Pilot’s Advise’. (CBTMO + PA)

What is a Pilot ?

I posed this question to the Master on the bridge after my search through
the Layton’s Dictionary of Nautical Words and Terms failed to provide
any answer to the origin of Pilots and Pilotage ? ‘Actually,’ volunteered Capt.Chapman, ‘I was at college with
a chap who’s father was a River Tees pilot and had an answer for that’. According to the story, around the time
of the Vikings, circa 844AD, they would pillage and conquer along the coastline
of the UK and up the estuaries in search of villages and hamlets to
plunder. In order to navigate their long boats safely into these rivers, they would compel a native with good
local knowledge to show them the channels and narrows and dangers. This local fisherman or sailor would
have an incentive to bring them safely to shore. If they should fail in their ‘pilotage’, the result was
instant death. (what happened to them when they successfully made land I cannot say ?). And so the practice of using local
knowledge for navigation was born ? (Thanks to Martin Sedgewick for that tale).

I set Wavey Davey, our resident researcher, on the quest to verify this
story or find other origins, but due to duties, he has failed to find his way
back to the internet in time for this publication. My own feeble attempts were thwarted by constant ‘hits’ on
the internet drawing me to Aviation and Aircraft Pilots which is like showing a ‘red flag to a bull’. I kept getting diverted from the task in hand – which is a great limitation of the internet. But I, for one, am happy
to accept the Captain’s interpretation of the origins of nautical pilots. Should there be anyone out there who
can shed any further light on this subject, I am sure I would be happy to hear of it.

But once safely alongside Sullom Voe, we put the Pilot ashore
(choosing Not to kill him ?) and then the hoards disembarked and a whole new
Stolt crew joined. (or re-joined as we saw the earlier team return). For the BAS crew – having joined in
July – will now remain with the vessel until she has refit in Portsmouth and
departs to Montevideo in South America.
Not so for our North Sea Colleagues who are still on a 2 (weeks) on / 2
off rota, or the DPO’s (Dynamic Positioning Officers) who are presently doing 4
on / 4 off. This way we get to see the same faces coming and going on the
Shackleton.

Click on Sullom Voe to Enlarge the Terminal.

And this is what welcomed us alongside. A very small place indeed with nowhere for the crew to go
ashore shopping. With only 2 hours
alongside I think that was a moot
point anyway, but Sullom Voe only boasts an oil terminal and a small
‘international’ airstrip with flights back to Aberdeen. Although not entirely visible in the
picture, the airfield is just in the valley on the left as you view the picture
and allowed some great views of the BAE-146 aeroplanes coming and going. I was able to monitor their
transmissions to ATC (Air Traffic Control) on the bridge aeronautical radio as
they approached for landing. And
although we pulled away within 3 hours, we didn’t move far. Just around the corner (and still on
the approach path of the aeroplanes), the ROV was put back in the water and we
continued to survey the Sullom Voe pipeline – this time from the shore going
outward to sea. Slowly, very slowly, the vessel edged ever sea-ward as we ‘followed’ the submersible on it’s
survey from Sullom Voe all the way out to the Magnus field in the Northern
North Sea. See the map at the top of this page.

While in Sullom voe it was go to see an old Ship Mate of ours, Scott Baker,
who’d given up the sea-going port of the job to work at the Port Control
Office. We wish him and his wife
Pippa (Ex-BAS Doctor) well, and hope to see them again in Portsmouth.

WAVEY DAVEY’S WEEKLY WIT SPOT.

Davey’s poor offerings this week ?

‘What did the Eskimo Boy say to the Eskimo Girl ?…’ ‘ What’s an Ice Girl like you doing in
a place like this ? ‘

‘And how do Dinosaurs pass exams ??? ‘ ‘ … with Extinction ! ‘

The Radio Officer Flies Off On His Broomstick ??

I am often asked by those ashore what it is that
the crew do when they finish their shift of work and have free time on their
hands. ? One of the best
suggestions I ever had was from a passenger on a cruise liner. ‘ I suppose the crew go home every
night ‘ ? she said. (We wish…) We were cruising in the
middle of the South China Sea at the time! Just because the crew are not visible after they leave their
work stations, doesn’t mean there isn’t a full program of recreation going on
around the vessel, and behind the scenes.
Some are righteous enough to go down to the ‘trimnasium’ to work out, a
lot of us head for the ship’s computers to check our emails, research the
internet (thank you Davey), or just find a movie in the ship’s library to while
away the hours till bedtime.

Not so for our ‘Sparkie’ Steve who is an avid private pilot and heads for his cabin to go flying … on a broomstick !

No. He does not subscribe to the Black Arts and there is nothing ‘magical’
about his flying machine. Having spent a few weeks (and lots of money) on leave doing flight training on a
flying machine called an ‘Autogyro’, he is anxious not to lose the new skills
and procedures that he has just learnt. Hence, with the use of a computer screen and a broomstick, he has
‘cobbled’ together his own flight simulator to go flying each evening !

Click to Enlarge the Image of a Gyro in Flight.

The ’computer’ part of the simulator is merely a
selection of pictures of the Autogyro dashboard which, when scrolled, gives a
sort of ‘animation’ of the flight of the real machine. But what to do with those hands and
feet ? This is where the ingenious use of a broomstick comes in very handy.
The broom handle was cut to the required length and a bicycle handlebar
grip was added. Then to simulate the ‘pre-rotator’ which effectively spins up the blades of an autogyro, a
well-placed bicycle handbrake lever was used. The result ? An instant autogyro ! All that is
required to complete the effect is the audio accompaniment. That is why nobody is surprised to pass
by the cabin of the Radio Officer to hear the sounds of ‘Wokka, Wokka’ emanating
from the would-be-autogyro-pilot within. The Radio Officer is once again airborne and flying his broomstick
across the cabin !

Click to Enlarge ‘Captain Binky’ at the controls of his Autogyro !

The weather, for the week has been fair. The anticipated summer heatwave that
was forecast for Friday 12th never really happened, or at least not
out here in the Northern Extremities of the UK. However, we have enjoyed calm seas and dry weather for the
best part and that has allowed the ROV work to continue on apace. The forecast for the forthcoming week
is pretty much the same so we do not anticipate any problems with a continued
program of surveying and recording.

Forthcoming Events: Continue surveying the undersea pipelines and relaying mattresses in the Northern North Sea Oilfields.

Contributors this week: Thanks to Capt Graham Chapman for his
hypothesis on Pilots and Wavey Davey for offering to do the research.

North Sea Diary No.9 should be written on Sunday 21st August
for publication on Monday 22nd August, operations permitting.